News

This year’s annual survey of Iowans, conducted by the Center for Social and Behavioral Research (CSBR) at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), indicates growing awareness and support for STEM education. This seventh year, 1,006 randomly selected citizens were asked their perceptions of STEM in both English and Spanish.

Under the leadership of STEM Council Co-Chairs Governor Kim Reynolds and Kemin Industries President and CEO Dr. Chris Nelson, the 47-member STEM Council represents key stakeholders from across the STEM interest spectrum, including education to industry and nonprofits to policy.

Iowa’s STEM Council recognized early on the uniqueness of each of the six STEM regions they created in 2012. Their founding vision was that a statewide STEM program cannot thrive as a “one-size-fits-all” model.

Now that teacher leaders and instructional coaches dwell in schools throughout the state, an ideal partnership is in the making between Iowa STEM and building-level lead instructors. A robust roster of 440 such pivot-point educators in the areas of mathematics and science, as well as in the applied fields of technology and engineering, were accrued with the help of superintendents across Iowa.